1. Choose a hypothesis seen as important by scholars in the literature but for which no one has completed a systematic study. ("literature"?)
2. Choose a hypothesis in the literature that we suspect is been adequately confirmed and investigate whether it is indeed false.
3. Attempt to resolve or provide further evidence of one side of a controversy in the literature—perhaps demonstrate that the controversy was unfounded from the start.
4. Design research to illuminate or evaluate unquestioned assumptions in the literature.
5. Argue that an important topic has been overlooked in the literature and then proceed to contribute a systematic study to the area.

• A question that
  • people care (and/or?)
  • has not been studied (and/or?)
  • the existing confirmation might be wrong (and/or?)
  • relates to one side (and/or?)
  • the premise is wrong (and/or?)
  • something is missing (and/or?)

"No bourgeois, no democracy" (1966, 418): The likelihood of democracy increases once the size of the bourgeoisie has passed a certain threshold.

• When
  • Democracies would not be expected to occur before the industrial and commercial revolutions.
• Where
  • The establishment of democracies would be expected first in the countries that industrialized first.
  • Democracy would be less likely in countries in which wealth comes mainly from the export of mineral resources.
  • Democracy would be less likely in countries in which foreigners or pariah capitalists excluded from the political community own most enterprises.
• How
  • In the contemporary world, democracy would be more likely in more industrialized countries.
  • The likelihood of democracy would decline as state ownership of economic resources rose.